


Lay Down on the Wire

by steveelotaku



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (Death is Cheap in Marvel and We All Know It), Canon can bite me, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Possible Character Death, Soul Stone (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-16 15:09:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20852327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steveelotaku/pseuds/steveelotaku
Summary: AU where Steve Rogers goes to get the soul stone (with Hawkeye in tow as backup) and reunites with an old nemesis. Steve wants to make the sacrifice. He may not get a choice in the matter.Or, what happens when I decide canon can just screw off with its casual fridging of female characters in the most poorly written diabolus ex machina since Halo 5's evil Cortana.





	Lay Down on the Wire

It had taken some time for Steve to talk the others into letting him go for the Soul stone, but few were willing to argue with him for long. Still, Hawkeye had insisted on going with him, if only for the fact one of them wasn’t going to be making it back at the end of the trip.

“Just stay back,” Steve said, “and let me handle this.”

“Why?” Clint asked, as they settled into the strange, cosmic landscape. “Afraid I’ll throw myself away out of guilt?”

“Yes, actually. I’m an old man, Clint. You have a family to win back. I have no one left. This is a fight that doesn’t need me—and if you fix the timeline, there’s probably a way I can return if you really need me back. I honestly figure Tony can’t resist meddling with time a bit more after this all blows over.”

“You’re really this upbeat about sacrificing yourself?”

Steve nodded as he ascended a stone staircase.

“Clint, the world doesn’t need old soldiers. We die so the new world can keep going. Make it a better place. Besides, you’ve got two kids who think the world of you. It’s time we got them back.”

Reluctant, Clint hung back, sitting on the steps and looking at a worn old photo. It’d be a long trip back, he knew, and he figured thinking of his kids would be the one thing stopping him from doing something rash.

At the very top of the staircase, Steve stopped in front of a cloaked figure, who pulled aside his hood almost sadly, in a way that suggested familiarity.

As a red skull came into view, Steve felt something twist in his heart, and phantom feelings of ice forming around his arm drifted in before he shook it out of his head.

"We meet again, Captain Rogers."

"Schmidt. Been a while."

"Too long, perhaps. You seek the stone?"

"Yeah. What's it take to get it?"

Johann Schmidt’s voice dropped to a low, grave whisper.

"The greatest sacrifice of all."

"Then that'll be the easiest thing I do all week."

Steve walked to the edge of the cliff and peered down into the mists below, thinking of the past for a moment, and brushing it aside again. This was his time—he knew all men died, and by any right his time would have come long ago. As he braced himself to jump, Schmidt’s voice made him pause.

"Why give yourself up so easily, Captain?"

A gnarled hand held him back.

"Because as you already saw back in Germany...if it means the world's safe, then I can die happy."

A soft laugh escaped what could only charitably called Schmidt’s lips.

"Dr. Erskine was right about you. You really were the perfect soldier."

Steve looked at his former foe. It was an odd sentiment from the man, but he supposed decades rotting away in space could change even the most opinionated and stubborn of people. There was precious little pride left in the old HYDRA leader, and only the faintest glimmer of that old arrogance remained in the Red Skull’s tired eyes.

"You could have been too, Schmidt."

Schmidt nodded sadly.

"Indeed, Captain. And that is why I cannot let you do this."

Steve forced himself closer, but the Red Skull held him back, pulling him away from the ledge.

"Why now? Why stop me?"

Schmidt laughed softly, barely a whisper in the cold, starlit void.

"Captain, I have waited an eternity for nothing. Now, I stand here watching the Gotterdammerung of the universe. This is my chance to spite a foe far greater than you. And if I live for anything now, it is spite. I do not need a universe of ghosts praising me like this fool Thanos."

Throwing aside his cloak, Johann Schmidt perched on the ledge of the cliff. Before Steve could even make a move, he had already begun to prepare his jump.

"I will be back, Captain Rogers. One way or another, in this lifetime or the next, we will meet again. But for now, you have a universe to save."

Steve reached out, but the Red Skull had already leapt, laughing a dark, bitter laugh, filled with satisfaction at finally having some purpose.

After a brief moment, the Soul stone appeared, and wordlessly, Steve took it, turning it over in his hand. He almost swore he saw a glimpse of the Red Skull looking back at him with that forced smile, but when he blinked, it was gone.

It took him a minute to know what to do or say, but Steve looked over the horizon, looking for some trace of his former foe, and not finding it, he raised one hand up to his head. An uneasy salute for an unexpected sacrifice.

"You could have been such a great man, Schmidt. I can only hope when you return, you remember that."

Steve returned to Clint’s location, and Clint did a visible double take.

“How’d you get the stone? Please don’t tell me your shield is the most valuable thing your life.”

“No, I didn’t sacrifice anything. He wouldn’t let me.”

“You mean…”

“Johann Schmidt threw himself on a grenade for the world. Probably the first good deed he’s done in a very long time.”

“Then let’s make it count,” Clint said, signalling the portal.

\--

A while later, Steve sat in his quarters, looking at old dossiers, when a knock came on the door.

“Hey. Stripes. It’s Tony. Look, uh, I don’t know if you want to talk, but I’m here if you do.”

“Come in,” Steve said, and opened the door, not really looking up.

“Clint was telling me you got the stone. And that you, ever the American hero, were thinking of throwing yourself off a cliff for it.”

“I was.”

“What stopped you? He said you’d tell it better.”

“The Red Skull. He laid down on the wire so we could crawl over him.”

Tony raised an eyebrow.

“Uh, excuse me? Are we talking about the same Red Skull here? The whole goose-stepping, black trench coat, ja mein fuhrer Red Skull?”

Steve nodded.

“Well. Did Nazi that coming.”

“Tony.”

It was a subtle vocal inflection, but Steve’s tone said enough.

“Right. Sorry. Not the time for jokes. I, uh…I’ll be checking the progress of the others, if you need some time alone.”

Steve said nothing as the door closed.

The world was one step closer to being saved.

He had never expected to be alive to see it.

And as he closed the folder, he took one last look at the picture of Johann Schmidt, wondering just what had the man seen to make him change.

“You were right, Dr. Erskine,” he muttered.


End file.
